Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) is an international honors society in sociology. We have written before about how AKD can be hugely beneficial when it comes to professional development for sociology students. In our previous blog we discussed the costs and benefits, including their Teaching and Learning Workshop. One program we did not mention is AKD’s Social Justice Award, which launched in 2020.
According to the AKD website,
“The Social Justice Award stemmed from wanting to enable chapters to identify and implement meaningful change as called for in AKD’s Statement on Racism in America.”
Beyond their description, AKD also started an informative blog which includes interviews with representatives from two of the winning chapters. In these interviews you get to learn about the the different award winning projects, both of which are truly inspiring!
Social Justice Award Winners
Currently, AKD has interviews with two different chapters that won the Social Justice Award, Cal State LA and the University of North Alabama. Congratulations to both of these sociology departments for fostering an educational environment in which students are engaged in their communities!
Cal State LA used their award to focus on food justice in their community. As a part of this project students got to learn about issues related to food insecurity, the history of food, and the relationship between food and racial justice. Here is a link to AKD’s full interview with Dr. Analena Hassberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at Cal State LA.
The AKD Chapter at the University of North Alabama chose to use their award to focus on restorative justice in their community. In this project students learned about restorative justice, especially as it relates to community organizing and legislative advocacy. Be sure to check out the full interview with the chapter representative, Dr. Andrea Hunt.
Final Thoughts
As we have mentioned before, AKD is a truly fantastic organization for students and professionals alike. The fact that they offer this award goes to show how AKD is fiercy dedicated to their mission and makes real efforts to facilitate the use of sociology to improve the well-being of communities.
Once again, shout out to Drs. Hassberg and Hunt for leading community engaged sociology projects that deserve to be awarded. Also a shout out to the sociology departments at Cal State LA and the University of North Alabama. Projects like these can make a huge impact, not only for the community but also for students that get to have these experiences as part of their professional development. Well done to all!
